Choice
by AllStarsBurnAsOne
Summary: The end is coming: they make the selfish choice, and they learn to live with it. AU/AT
1. Chapter 1

_It's coming soon. If we want to survive, we need to take action now._

 _Isn't that selfish?_

 _Haven't we always been selfish?_

It begins with a tremor in Luminara's finger.

The tiny movement catches the only the attention of those who are expecting it, the minuscule propulsion of energy sending the small sphere of metal and wires rolling into the room only a millisecond later, its detonation startling the room with a sudden flash of light and expulsion of smoke.

The entire council is on their feet in seconds, lightsabers drawn, and reaching, reaching out into the force, searching for the source of the attack.

The last time Luminara Unduli has run so blindly she must have been a mere padawan, she thinks to herself. It's a necessary action, though, they all know that the shield that Agen threw up the moment the grenade went off won't hold for long, especially against the prowess of their companions (or rather, from this moment, former companions, she thinks) on the council.

Eeth Koth peels away from the group, stalking off towards the hangar bay, his hand on his lightsaber. He pulls the hood of his cloak over his eyes, but not before he shares one last glance with the group beside him. Luminara understands this, she knows that if their plan goes wrong, they will never see each other again.

 _We're not going to think about what happens if we fail._

Quinlan Vos is counting.

He sits against the back wall of his cell, eyes closed, breath steady. The light from the hallway filters through the slats on the door, leaving narrow strips of white against the otherwise dark floor.

Then he hears the telltale clicking sound of metal against metal, right on time.

He breathes in.

The door to his cell shatters, and he's standing in the hallway, momentarily blinded by the brightness of it all.

He breathes out.

His rescuers have already gone, but he's not worried. It's always been a part of the plan.

His lightsaber sits on the floor in front of the opened main door. The troopers guarding it lay crumpled and unconscious on either side. Fisto, he notes, has left them alive.

(He's going to have to break him of that habit, Quinlan thinks)

 _Assuming you can break yourself out, Vos-_

 _I can._

 _Well then, Kit will open the doors, and we'll leave you to that. And then-_

Further down the hall and several unconscious clone troopers later, Kit jams his palm onto the interface of a much heaver door than the one sealing off Quinlan Vos' cell. The glowing interface, also unlike Quinlan's, flashes red. They expected this, no one but the top council members are allowed to enter. What is inside is too dangerous.

Kit focuses, the veins in his neck becoming more pronounced as he strains against the force-lock, pushing his way through the mechanism. Agen Kolar, his back pressed against Kit's, looks even more exhausted than his Nautolan companion, eyes squeezed shut as he struggles to mask the massive amounts of the force emanating from Kit.

The bolt clicks open, and Agen Kolar slumps to the floor, drained.

"That's it for us, Luminara." Kit bends down to pick up the Zabrack, throwing him over one shoulder. "We'll see you there. May the Force be with you."

 _Are you sure about this, Luminara?_

 _We can't leave her behind. She was right all along._

 _I won't fail her again._

Luminara takes off down the newly-revealed hallway, feeling the force block that Agen had put up crashing down around her. She can feel the other council members, there are too many of them, and their force signatures wrap around her, discovering her.

Shock.

Hurt.

Betrayal.

They hurt more than she expected them to.

She pushes them away as best she can, ignites her lightsaber. The door to the cell isn't impervious to lightsabers the way the one blocking the hallway was, but it still takes a decent amount of time to cut through the thick metal, and Luminara can feel a thin sheen of sweat on her face by the time she's done.

She pushes.

The neatly cut circle of what used to be the door slides out and falls into the cell.

She takes a deep breath.

"Who's there?" The voice sounds exhausted, mistrusting.

"It's me, Barriss."


	2. Chapter 2

_Once Agen's force block goes down, we need to get off Coruscant as soon as possible. They're going to know what we did, and they're going to come after us. The second we free Barris, we become the enemy._

 _We already are the enemy._

Luminara can feel the temple closing in on them, every available Jedi honing in on her location. Barriss is running behind her, weak from refusing meals. She'd been slightly hesitant at first, but feeling her former master's panic through the force had stirred her to action. Luminara supposes the fact that she'd brought Barriss' lightsaber hadn't hurt either.

Barriss still doesn't trust her, not completely. That, Luminara knows, will take time.

"Master Unduli, stop!" Anakin Skywalker's voice echoes from the other end of the hallway. She doesn't respond except to fling her hand back, pushing out with the force, and she hears Skywalker yell in surprise as he is slammed back against the wall.

 _We're not going to hurt anyone. Not if we can help it_.

They reach the elevator, and Luminara pushes the doors, jumping down the shaft. She feels Barriss follow suit.

The back entrance has been left unguarded, no doubt a result of Kit and Agen's earlier exit. Luminara stops momentarily, surveying the space in front of them.

Under one of the overhangs on the platform, a hidden speeder lies in wait for them. Between then and the overhand is several feet of open space. She takes a deep breath. They haven't caught up to her yet.

They take off the platform, and Luminara can feel the temple's artillery trained on them, Jedi are almost pouring out of the exit now, they're so close-

The men manning the Temple's guns are hesitating. They've never had to shoot a Jedi master before. She almost laughs. (You can't help but form attachment, she thinks, I would know)

The first laser bolt misses them by millimeters.

Barriss jumps, grabbing Luminara and pulling her forward, and the two tumble off the edge of the platform and into the waiting speeder.

Luminara slams her hand down against the maneuver control, and the speeder shoots out from under the platform. She's gritting her teeth as she dodges blasts from the temple, there's adrenaline flooding her veins but she focuses it, focuses it through the force.

She swears she hears over the sound of the wind rushing past her ears, screaming triumphantly as they clear the temple's firing range.

 _Once you've gotten out, head underground. Vos has secured transport for all of us -don't ask how, that man can get anyone to do anything, even from a cell like that- get there as fast as you can, and we'll all meet on Subterrel, Force willing._

Luminara can't breathe.

It feels as if the world is collapsing in on her, everything she thought she knew and thought she was breaking apart simultaneously.

She'd had a future. She'd had a sure path, she would die as a Jedi, fighting for the truth, for justice, for peace.

And then she'd given it up. Because the Jedi were going to fall. Because saving everyone was impossible. Because the Jedi were not an army. The Jedi were supposed to bring balance.

Because of Barriss.

The girl is tapping her lightsaber against the metal floor of the carrier, trying to keep calm, but Luminara can tell that she, too, feels unsettled, thrown out of place. She, too, had until a few hours ago know what the rest of her days would entail. She, like Luminara, has never lived without the Order.

"I don't know what to say." Barriss finally mutters, but she does, and Luminara hears it.

(I didn't want to die. I didn't want anyone to die. I knew the truth and I knew it before anyone and I knew the truth and I knew it and **why didn't you listen why didn't you just why didn't anyone just -listen-**

I didn't want you to die.

Thank you. )

Luminara feels her breath return.

 _It's going to be shocking, for all of us. We will feel our own betrayal stronger and more painfully than any of them. You can't let it get to you._

 _Not until we're safe._

Subterrel is loud and dark and the air seems to be permanently infused in a haze of smoke, trapped underground in the city's tunnels, unable to escape to the uninhabitable surface. Luminara and Barris cover their lightsabers and their faces and they hope that the news of their betrayal hasn't reached out here, beyond the outer rim.

Kit and Agen and Eeth are already at their meeting place, a bar with the name scrawled in some incomprehensible Huttese dialect into a half-function neon sign hanging above the door. Luminara feels tears welling in her eyes at the sight of their faces. They're alive. They made it.

She scoots into the booth with them, the grime of the seat against her hands and the smell of smoke so unfamiliar she feels she might be dreaming. They sit in silence, letting the force sit heavily atop them, comforting each other silently.


End file.
